The case for Euro independents

As cars become more intricate, both in their construction and in their features, it’s important that they are serviced by people who understand them.

The high tech. revolution particularly applies to European vehicles, where the development of new technologies mostly emanates from. It was Europe that invented seatbelts and ABS, arguably jointly the two best lifesavers yet developed for cars, Europe which invented electronic stability programmes, antiskid technology – the list goes on.

Yet importers of European cars are limited in their ability to adequately cover the entire country in terms of service, and often gaps are filled by independent specialists appointed by the importers themselves.

At the same time a growing trend of importation of European-derived used cars, not just from Japan, where most of our used imports come from – but direct from Britain and other parts of Europe – has led to a reticence among the major league importers to service these cars as they strive to protect their unique selling point, that they are the ones affiliated with the factory, and thus “the best equipped to handle sales and service”.

The irony of this situation is that there is a growing number of independent service shops which specialise in European cars, and especially the slightly older models which are usually imported used.

The development of diagnostic equipment which has all the latest fault codes undoubtedly makes their work easier, and at the same time many of them are “factory-trained”, having worked for a number of years at European franchise dealerships where they gained vast experience on the cars they are now servicing as used models.

There are other developments, too, which help independent